george w. bush

It wasn't reported in the R-G today but a call for President George W. Bush's impeachment is making international headlines.

Following up on his call to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney, former Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich called for the impeachment of President Bush yesterday.

Rep. Kucinich of Ohio introduced 35 articles of impeachment against Bush on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, amid noise and calls to get the House "in order."

Kucinich accused Bush and Cheney of lying to Congress and the American people. The president set out to deceive U.S. citizens and violated his oath of office by beginning the Iraq war, Kucinich said, as he read a list of allegations against Bush.

"Bush misled the American people and members of Congress to believe Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction so as to manufacture a false case for war. President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office," Kucinich said.

According to a press release from Kucinich's office, the representative's re-election website "was shut down this morning by a series of suspicious and fast-moving events" within hours of Kucinich introducing the articles of impeachment.

In other (potential) presidential news, apparently John McCain really needs a beer. Or maybe not, since he says he would veto every single beer that came across his desk if he became the leader of the free world...

7. Stupid city ordinance. I kind of fell in love with the blog posts about xeriscaping here. (But if you're into dahlias, you'll also be happy.) Extra cool: It's by Ketzel Levine. She lives in Portland. I heard a rumor that she used to work at KLCC, but I can't find any documentation of that. Yes? No? Readers?

5. Deciders don't like protesters.And have manuals on how not to see them.Not that they're worried or anything. But the White House evidently leaves little to chance when it comes to protests within eyesight of the president. As in, it doesn't want any.

Ugh! So tired. But oh, my, did Chuck and I enjoy our four days at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, even the less good plays and the, well, disastrous tuna affair at the lame restaurant (all shall be revealed in good time).

Anyway, while we were away, things happened.
1. Nuclear war is OK online. Hey, we ran a story on Second Life. But this? This is creepy.

3. For more female equality (and better sex), don't beat your swords into plowshares; just get rid of 'em. Actually, that's but one thing that this Salon story tells us.Generally women take a broader view of everything, for good Darwinian reasons.

4. Jesus F. Christ, please put down your book and pay attention to flight attendants when they talk about those emergency slides.And here's why.

5. Some dailies still have books coverage. Check out my hometown newspaper! Frankly, I'm shocked. Why? Where's Robert Heinlein on that list, eh?! (He was from KC, after all.)

6. Holy fucking shit: Hamas in kindergarten. If the photo with this story doesn't creep you out, you are not creepable. (Yes, it's totally SFW.)

7. Australia totally screws over its Aboriginal population.Seriously. Over the past six years, at least $30 million of the money the Government promoted as being for Aborigines was used to oppose native title and compensation claims.

9. The weekend's weirdest and possibly most counterproductive headline comes from Sunday's O, which ran Illegal immigrants aren't filling jails as the above-the-fold front page story. Um. Thanks, I think.
Online, the story has a different headline.

It's a 1944 movie that actually made me tear up about WWII and the Battle of Britain a couple of times, all the while thinking about the much more anti-war overlay of Kenneth Branagh'sHenry V of 1989.

One thinks about war, leadership and the differences between those who have courage and those who do not when watching Henry V. In the scene in Act IV in which King Henry walks through the camp, disguised in Sir Thomas Erpingham's cloak, I was much struck by the words of one of the soldiers, who's telling the king (without knowing it's the king) his views on the responsibilities of the king towards his men who die in battle.

WILLIAMS
But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath
a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and
arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join
together at the latter day and cry all 'We died at
such a place;' some swearing, some crying for a
surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind
them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their
children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die
well that die in a battle.